that strange music

Forgotten Pathways

Welcome,

wanderer, to the digital homeplace of Forgotten Pathways. Whether you’re here for the first time or are visiting again, navigating through this rooms is fairly easy. Just scroll along or visit the places of your interest via the menu. You won’t get lost and don’t need to leave a trail of breadcrumbs to find your way back.

Here,

you can find information about the music project Forgotten Pathways. You can read about its history, gather news, and acquire records, art prints or clothing. If you’re missing something, feel free to contact me.

It's Not Easy,

to define the musical genre of Forgotten Pathways. Some possible phrases could be Medieval Ambient, Dungeon Synth, Dark Ambient or Black Folk. If you’re curious, listen to some tracks here.

music videos

history

HISTORY

Forgotten Pathways was founded in 1997.

The recordings for the first demo tape „Shrouded In Mystery“ took about 6 months and were solely done on a single keyboard with one-shot samples and a song-arranging function. It was released with two different covers and on blank, handlabeled cassette tapes.

About 300 copies were sold and traded with mostly positive resonance in fanzines.

Then, the great slumber began.

I still composed music for Forgotten Pathways, but never released anything. You can see a bit more info on the Discography page.
In 2014, Forgotten Pathways finally arose from it’s decade-long sleep. Nearly a year of composing and recording lead to the first album „A Long Way Home“. You can read more about it on the Album page. Another large chunk of time was used to create the album artwork. Everything was done manually, by using the linocut technique. If you’re interested into these fine cuts, you can acquire these as artprints and posters, as well as handprinted T-Shirts and other accessories (soon).

Further releases are also planned, so stay tuned and visit once in a while!

That was the working title of the demo tape I planned and started to work on around 1998/99.
It should have become a conceptual tape album, dealing with the Beowulf saga. I finished 2 ½ tracks, but lost focus and didn’t pick it up afterwards.
These tracks are planned as bonus tracks for a re-release, most likely for Shrouded In Mystery.
One of these tracks, „Heorot“, was released on FoxFires #1 compilation (Irrlichter Records).

That CD album marked a turn in the musical style of Forgotten Pathways. The tracks are a mix of Medieval Ambient and fairy-tale themes with a Musique Concrete-style of composition. The result are dark, surreal and lengthy songs with a psychedelic edge.
The album was finished, but I postponed the release for several reasons, and after a while I found not all tracks release-worthy anymore. Some still are great in my opinion, and will possibly be released as an EP album.
Tracklist:
1. Old Man’s Brew
2. Pixies Of The Sun
3. Shroomy FoxFires
4. Foggy FireFoxes
5. Persian Kitty
6. The Goblin Tower Mine
7. JazzKeller – A Deeper Shade Of AcidJazz

„Pixies Of The Sun“ was released on FoxFires #1 compilation (Irrlichter Records). Surprisingly, „Shroomy FoxFires“ once got airplay on a local radio station.

This was another CD album that was ready to be released, but I also postponed it and then never released it. It was planned as a mini-album, showing a cross section of old and new tracks, partly of Kauderweisch as well as tracks that were no part of a certain album and emerged somewhere inbetween.
Will possibly be a future release, including these tracks as well as other previously unreleased tracks and B-Sides.

This is the first full-length release of Forgotten Pathways. Written in 2014/2015, it was released in 2015 on CD, Tape and as Digital Download.

Musically, this album is partly a lot darker and more dynamic than Shrouded In Mystery. As before, the songs mostly consist of several parts, often rising in intensity over time. The arrangements are more elaborate and symphonic than before.
Thematically, A Long Way Home focusses on fairy tales.

At this moment, A Long Way Home is the only album available for purchase, so feel free to browse the Shop page or listen to excerpts of all tracks here. You’ll also find more info about that album there. The MC version features two bonus tracks for those that still cherish that trusty sound storage medium.

Originally released in 1998, the songs on this demo tape were composed during winter 1997 to somehwere around summer 1998 (at least if my memory serves me right). The tape circulated for a while, around 250 copies were spread. In 1998/1999, I worked on a successor, which should become another demo tape focussing on the Beowulf saga, therefore under the working title „Beowulf“. Only 2 tracks (an Intro and a full song) were completed, apart of a few song fragments. These tracks featured a stronger use of sound effects and acoustic instruments, but since I lost focus at some time the demo was never finished.

Now in 2017, 20 years leater, „Shrouded In Mystery“ is being rereleased in a remastered version. This just implies a light improvement of the sound characeristics, a reduce of hiss and repair of lost treble. The recording was taken off the original master tape. Also, both finished „Beowulf“-tracks make for the bonus tracks on the B-Side. The „Beowulf – Intro“ was dubbed from an old rehearsal tape, including the sound effects used in the past, and remastered as well. „Beowulf – Stadt“ was once recorded directly off the old keyboard outputs, missing the sound effects and acoustic instruments (which were done quite sloppy anyway). The last track is „In Caverns Deep (diff. Vox)“, which was included on the orginal tape as well and features growled vocals instead of the whispered vocals of the main version.

The 2nd edition of the original demo is „ReShrouded In Mystery“. It consists of the original compositions, which were fully rearranged and rerecorded. All tracks are subtly improved. This results in a better sound, instrumentation and a few variations on the original compositions, while keeping the old atmosphere intact. On the B-Side, both „Beowulf“ tracks are also included, being rearranged as well! „Beowulf – Stadt“ now includes sound effects and acoustic instruments as well, as did the original rehearsal track. The 3rd bonus track is „Shrouded In Mystery“, a wholly new composition and late title track.

Finally, this is the first full-fledged full-length release of Forgotten Pathways. Written in 2014/2015, it was released in 2015 on CD, Tape and as Digital Download. Vinyl would be great, too, and is a possible future option (if you know where to cut vinyl for medium or low cost, let me know…).
For me, it feels as if I needed all these years to hatch an album like this. I lost my track often over
the years, found back all in a while, then lost it again. Now, I feel like being home again.

Musically, this album is partly a lot darker and more dynamic than Shrouded In Mystery. As before, the songs mostly consist of several parts, often rising in intensity over time. The arrangements are more elaborate and symphonic than before.
Thematically, A Long Way Home focusses on fairy tales. These centuries-old stories draw heavily on a wide range of human emotions, often ending dark, bitter and being strongly symbolic. Most of the tracks are directly linked to a certain tale, while others are more general impressions of situations and events common to that genre of literature.

At this moment, A Long Way Home is the only album available for purchase, so feel free to browse the Shop page and listen to excerpts of all tracks. The MC version features 2 bonus tracks for those that still cherish that trusty sound storage medium.

REVIEWS

Forgotten Pathways is a German dungeon synth project that stands out in comparison to its contemporaries. While the majority of dungeon synth artists have a lo fi haze floating through their production, A Long Way Home, the debut from Forgotten Pathways, shines with deep, full sounding atmosphere. While this aspect takes away some of the charm of dungeon synth, the ability to transport the listener into a space is still present. Entirely concerned with folklore and fairytales, A Long Way Home quickly becomes one of the more accessible releases I have seen to date and could possibly allow an interesting entry point for newcomers into the genre. Full of life and shrouded in magic, Forgotten Pathways is certainly ready for people to enjoy chasing after fairies by moonlight. (more..)

Hollywood Metal

Whilst the production is well-crafted and full of life, there are few key melodies upon which a song—or album as a whole—hinges. This does, however—and quite paradoxically—give the release a rare depth; it demands that the listener pay attention to each moment equally rather than holding on for select passages. Where A Long Way Home excels, and sets itself apart from genre pioneers such as Burzum and Mortiis, as well as current leaders such as Murgrind and Lord Lovidicus, is in the freedom it gives itself to utilise chromatic scales with unorthodox passing notes. In this way, the compositions remain quite busy throughout, yet end up having a somewhat ’70’s progressive rock feel, with echoes of Tangerine Dream and earlier Vangelis. This is the main method by which A Long Way Home achieves its playful mood and is undoubtedly its hallmark. (more..)

Heathen Harvest

The self-financed and self-released A Long Way Home sounds very professional, and the attention to detail here is immediately obvious. A Long Way Home is a collection of tracks which are all loosely themed around German fairytales. This album seems like the perfect fit as background music to your next game of pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons. It is highly cinematic at times, and while it is dynamic, it is never demanding of your attention or distracting. It should not be passed off as a generic dark fantasy or dungeon synth album though, as there is true depth and thought put into this album.
[...]
As stated previously, this is the perfect background music to a night of Dungeons and Dragons, or even live action role-playing. It is subtle enough to not distract the listener yet dynamic enough to keep the avid listeners attention from beginning to end. Unlike other albums of this type, the generally lighthearted nature of A Long Way Home won’t alienate any listeners who aren’t used to hearing music outside of the popular sphere, yet it stays true to its dark and fantastical themes throughout.
8/10
Terra Relicta

Terra Relicta

‘A Long Way Home’ is one of my two absolute favourite dungeon synth albums I’ve heard this year, and it’s one of the most impressive I’ve seen in a long time. I considered the ‘Shrouded In Mystery’ demo by Forbidden Pathways (from 1998) to be quite impressive and most enjoyable even then, but after the long hiatus this musician has truly blossomed! The level of technical and compositional skill on this album is breathtaking – it is a feat reminiscent of the classical composers, and so rarely found in the dungeon synth community. This artist weaves together many different styles in a patchwork quilt which is spectacularly beautiful to behold.

Forgotten Pathway's demo, Shrouded in Mystery only brings us to the point where we can see the misty twilight that marks the boundary between here and the elfish realm, and blurry in the distance, that fabled landscape itself. We can picture what was lost, what that fantastic realm might hold. And what it truly does hold we can never know because what we have lost is the mystery itself. (more…)

Dungeon Synth Blog

Forgotten Pathways is a project that means a lot to me. When I first began to explore the Dungeon Synth genre, the “Shrouded in Mystery” demo really stood out for me, and to this day is still my favorite underground Dungeon Synth release of the 90’s. 18 years after the project’s creation, mastermind Cedric Hommel is back and working on new material.
To read the full interview, check out Barbarian Skull